A new 80-storey tower approved Wednesday for The Quarters could set a record for height in Western Canada and the clock is now ticking for construction.

It passed 7-5 — with those in favour celebrating the coming change to Edmonton’s skyline.

“We’re not talking about Banff. We’re talking about downtown Edmonton,” said Coun. Michael Oshry, who voted in favour of a project that will involve selling a 0.5-hectare piece of previously disturbed river valley parkland to a private developer.

The tower will sit in the middle of a one-hectare publicly accessible park or series of landscaped terraces with cafes and restaurants. Alldritt Group has 10 years to start construction before the zoning expires.

Council voted 7-5 to allow rezoning for construction of the 80-storey Alldritt Tower in The Quarters.Mike Isaak Photography /
Kennedy Architecture

The city would be responsible for a final link into Louise McKinney Park. Council voted to explore how to build that link after approving the project.

Serious opposition

Mayor Don Iveson and councillors Michael Walters, Scott McKeen, Ben Henderson and Andrew Knack all voted against the rezoning. Coun. Bev Esslinger was in Asia on council business.

For many, the vote came down to whether they believed the tower will help or hinder redevelopment in the rest of the east downtown area, and whether enough public consultation occurred before the underlying redevelopment plan saw substantial change.

This viewpoint was critical to The Quarters redevelopment plan, which envisioned a public park acting as a catalyst. That could still happen, but in a different way.

“One public open house did not hit the mark … It felt like for some reason we were rushing,” said McKeen, voting against even though he loves the “audacious” design.

“It’s going to make it harder to develop the part of The Quarters we wanted to develop,” said Henderson, calling this a rare river valley viewpoint downtown.

Iveson said the vote had been cast as “some sort of big city litmus test.” But New York City would never sell a patch of Central Park across the street from Harlem to jumpstart development, even for a private-public park, he said.

“And by the way,” Iveson said, “Harlem is up and coming now. It simply took some time and patience.”

Alldritt Group released new renderings of its planned 80-storey tower and park after council approved the zoning on April 26, 2017.Kennedy Architecture

Council’s 10-year deadline

The vote Wednesday starts the clock for Alldritt Group. It has 10 years to finish geotechnical studies, detailed design and secured a valid development permit. If it misses the deadline, the company loses the rights granted by this rezoning and nothing can be built except a park.

Architect Brad Kennedy said the company is already in talks with a hotel operator and launched a residential condo sales website as soon as the vote was in. It will demolish the existing derelict pink-and-blue buildings at Jasper Avenue and 96 Street right away and put in sod for a temporary park as early as this summer while plans are finalized.

The best-case scenario would see construction start in 2018 or 2019, taking three years to complete.

“The owner has (asked us) to proceed with haste,” Kennedy said. “We’ve already seen a tip in the market where condo sales are coming back … and the view from this project will be unlike anything else in the city.”

Council voted to use the proceeds of the land sale to buy other river valley land currently in private hands to add to the total public parkland inventory.

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